{"id":33,"date":"2026-06-02T08:27:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/?p=33"},"modified":"2026-06-02T08:27:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:27:41","slug":"michael-learned-never-regretted-leaving-the-waltons-and-still-questions-if-she-should-have-accepted-the-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/michael-learned-never-regretted-leaving-the-waltons-and-still-questions-if-she-should-have-accepted-the-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Learned Never Regretted Leaving &#8216;The Waltons&#8217; and Still Questions If She Should Have \u2018Accepted\u2019 the Role"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"mntl-sc-block_1-0\" data-tracking-id=\"mntl-sc-block-callout\" data-tracking-container=\"true\">\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Michael Learned explained in a new interview that she\u2019s never regretted leaving\u00a0<em>The Waltons<\/em>\u00a0after season 8, but still wonders if she should have signed on for the series at all<\/li>\n<li>The show ran from 1972 to 1981 and earned Learned three Emmys<\/li>\n<li>Learned also remembered her close bonds with the cast, including Richard Thomas and Ralph Waite<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_2-0\">Michael Learned won three Emmys for her role as Olivia Walton on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/tv\/the-surviving-waltons-where-are-they-now\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\"><em>The Waltons<\/em><\/a>, but looking back, her feelings about the show are complicated.<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_4-0\">Learned, 86, opened up about her time on the show on the Monday, Sept. 8 episode of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XraOOYzaETU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\"><em>Still Here Hollywood Podcast with Steve Kmetko<\/em><\/a>. She remembered that when her agent called her to let her know she\u2019d gotten the part, he said, \u201cYou are now the mother of America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_6-0\">Learned said she had just played Cleopatra on stage and starred in a production of No\u00ebl Coward\u2019s\u00a0<em>Private Lives<\/em>\u00a0directed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/francis-ford-coppola-family-members-footsteps-exclusive-11723548\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">Francis Ford Coppola<\/a>. Learned said her role as Olivia was written as \u201ca woman in her 40s,\u201d and she was just 32, but she said, \u201cI auditioned because we do what we have to do as actors.\u201d When she was cast, she said, \u201cI was beside myself because I really needed the job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_8-0\">Because she\u2019d been doing theater so long, Learned didn\u2019t know \u201cwhere to go or what to do\u201d on set, but the younger cast was \u201cvery professional\u201d and \u201cvery gracious.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/the-waltons-michael-learned-just-loved-costar-ralph-waite-and-knows-he-loved-me-11753753\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">Ralph Waite, who played her husband John Walton Sr.<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/all-about-richard-thomas-kids-8731625\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"2\">Richard Thomas<\/a>, who played John-Boy, she recalled, \u201cwent out of their way to kind of make me feel welcome, and that was it. It was like a whole new world for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"mntl-sc-block_10-0\"><figcaption id=\"mntl-figure-caption_1-0\">Michael Learned (left) and Ralph Waite in &#8216;The Waltons&#8217;.CBS via Getty<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_11-0\">The series ran from 1972 to 1981, for nine seasons, but Learned left the series after eight seasons. She told Kmetko that she remained \u201cvery close\u201d with her castmates after leaving, calling them her \u201csecond family.\u201d She also remembered that she and Waite,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/celebrity\/ralph-waite-patriarch-of-the-waltons-dies-at-85\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">who died in 2014<\/a>, \u201cgot sober\u201d at the same time when he asked her to go to Alcoholics Anonymous with him.<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_15-0\">\u201cWe both got sober and it stuck,\u201d she remembered, noting they did \u201cfeel a bit of responsibility\u201d to be a good \u201cmom and dad of America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_17-0\">Kmetko said, given her close bonds, it \u201cmust have been a tough call\u201d to decide to leave the series. He asked if she ever regretted it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_19-0\">\u201cNo, I didn&#8217;t,\u201d she said. \u201cOn the one hand, I wept because we were such a family, even the crew, we were all really close and like a family. But on the other hand, I got tired of [it].\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_21-0\">\u201cThey didn&#8217;t know what to do with me,\u201d she said. She remembered that creator Earl Hamner Jr. would tell her that he wanted her in more shots. \u201cSo they&#8217;d have me ironing and going, \u2018And then what happened, kids? And then where did you go? John-Boy, more coffee?\u2019 And things, just to have me in the scene. But as an actor, it was just boring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_23-0\">Still, she said she\u2019s \u201ceternally grateful\u201d for the show. \u201cIt put my kids through private school,\u201d she said. \u201c. . . But at the time I complained a lot, you know, \u2018I want to be home with my kids,\u2019 and here I was with these lovely kids, but they weren&#8217;t mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"mntl-sc-block_25-0\"><figcaption id=\"mntl-figure-caption_2-0\">The cast of &#8216;The Waltons&#8217;.CBS Photo Archive\/Getty<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_26-0\">Later in the episode, Kmetko asked if there were roles she wished she had said yes to. \u201cI turned something down that Francis Coppola offered me,\u201d she remembered, but otherwise, \u201cthere isn\u2019t really.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_28-0\">\u201cI sometimes question whether I should have accepted\u00a0<em>The Waltons<\/em>, but it was life-altering,\u201d she added. \u201cI was supposed to go on tour with\u00a0<em>Private Lives\u00a0<\/em>that Francis directed. Working with him was a dream.\u201d She said she\u2019s written him letters over the years, but \u201cnever mailed them,\u201d because she didn\u2019t want the director thinking she was asking for a job.<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_32-0\">Learned isn\u2019t precious about\u00a0<em>The Waltons<\/em>\u00a0or her career. When asked what she wants her legacy to be, she said, \u201cI don&#8217;t care. I don&#8217;t need to have a legacy. I just want my kids to speak kindly of me, and they do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_34-0\">She added, \u201cAnd I&#8217;m not being smarmy about it, but who&#8217;s gonna remember\u00a0<em>The Waltons\u00a0<\/em>50<em>\u00a0<\/em>years from now? Nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_36-0\">As for the future, the octogenarian actress said, \u201cI just want to work whenever I can.\u201d She added that she\u2019s still grieving the loss of her husband John Doherty, who she wed in 1991 and died in February.<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_38-0\"><strong>Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-news-daily-newsletter-sign-up-8692701\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">\u00a0PEOPLE&#8217;s free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_40-0\">\u201cWe were together for 33 years,\u201d she said. \u201cI&#8217;m still quite a bit raw, actually, but having had those wonderful years with him, he was such a wonderful person, and so he made me feel cherished. And I&#8217;d never felt that before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_42-0\">\u201cMy poor mother had six girls. We were a handful for her. So I always felt like I was a pain in the ass. He made me feel special,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I&#8217;m grateful to have had it, but I miss him terribly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Learned explained in a new interview that she\u2019s never regretted leaving\u00a0The Waltons\u00a0after season 8, but still wonders if she should have signed on for the series at all The show ran from 1972 to 1981 and earned Learned three Emmys Learned also remembered her close bonds with the cast, including Richard Thomas and Ralph [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chua-phan-loai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogtamsu.com.vn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}